Tag: eat dessert first

So much has changed over the past 15 months. Our family has been through so much, too much. This year for Easter we didn’t even get together as a family. I had decided that I was not even going to bake! Why would I? It was just 3 of us at dinner.

I was then asked to make some desserts for another family, a Cherry Cheesecake and some cupcakes. Then I got the ‘itch’, I must bake!

I was not totally convinced the cherry cheesecake I made had turned out. You can’t always tell until you cut into them (fingers crossed, I haven’t heard). I felt I needed to redeem myself, so I decided to make us a cheesecake. All this was decided on Good Friday – when all the stores are closed and Saturday the stores were a zoo. It always amazes me how people completely panic when a store closes for a day. You would think they would never be able to get food again. Anyways, I was not going to be shopping, I had to use what I had in the house.

I found a recipe for Cinnamon Bun Cheesecake. As intrigued as I was, I was not sure it would be good. I am a cinnamon freak, so the thought of it was just about making me drool, but I was not sure how it would pair with the cream cheese. I was skeptical enough to only make a mini one and halved the recipe. I also made a back up recipe!

3. Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

4. Bake crust for 10 minutes then remove and set aside.

5. Cover the outsides of the pan with aluminum foil and set aside.

Cheesecake filling

3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp all purpose flour

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Reduce oven to 300 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar and flour until combined (Use low speed to keep less air from getting into the batter, which can cause cracks). Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

3. Add eggs one at a time, beating slowly and scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition.

4. Add the sour cream, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Beat on low speed until well combined. Set aside.

Cinnamon filling

2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed

5 tbsp ground cinnamon

3/4 cup flour

12 tbsp butter, melted

1. In another medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, cinnamon and flour.

2. Stir in melted butter.

Assembly

1. Break apart cinnamon mixture and sprinkle pieces over the bottom of the crust, about 1/4 of the cinnamon mixture.

2. Spread about 1/3 of the cheesecake filling over the cinnamon mixture.

3. Repeat steps 7 and 8 two more times, for a total of three layers of cinnamon and three layers of cheesecake filling.

4. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon mixture over top of cheesecake.

5. Place springform pan (covered with aluminum foil) inside another pan. Fill outside pan with enough warm water to go about halfway up the sides of the springform pan. The water should not go above the top edge of the aluminum foil on the springform pan.

8. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Icing

2 tbsp cream cheese, room temperature

6 tbsp butter, room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

4-5 tbsp milk

Ran out of time and forgot to take pictures of this process. Also, threw it together at the end, not the greatest decorative job!

Looks delicious – minus the horrible icing job

Layers and layers of cinnamon deliciousness and it smells amazing!

With all the changes this year, I decided to start a new tradition…

I have had this magnet on my fridge for many years. This year has shown us too many times that life in fact is way too short. So….. we had dessert first! I figured, I made them, I can serve them when I want, haha! Also, now, no one can say ‘oh I want to, just no room, I ate too much supper!’. Plus, still the option to have more after dinner. Really, win-win!!

We enjoyed this mid afternoon – well before dinner

Absolutely amazing!

As I said before, I was not sure how the two flavours would meld together. All I can say is perfection! The cinnamon layers had a subtle crunch to them which added a nice texture to the smooth cheesecake. The strong cinnamon flavour really came though. It really tasted like a cinnamon bun!

I will definitely be making this again, and the full recipe. This may just be my new favourite cheesecake.